Preface

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Norman Bates is split between two houses (Zizek 2006): the modern horizontal motel and his mother’s gothic house. He is constantly running between the two, not being able to find his own. This parallels his complex personality, impersonations, and (perceived) identity(ies): The two architectures represent Norman’s identities, and the continuous oscillations between the one and the other mimic their confrontation. Psycho is a product of modernity, in which this type of struggle is evident: In the change of the century, and after the wars, “home” becomes a complex concept, and a space of conflict, which becomes even more radicalized as the times of the revolutions of the young generations start appearing at the horizon, first with the signals of music and art, and then with the sexual revolution, the drugs, and the nomadic lifestyles which come with them at both physical, mental, and economic levels. The postmodern dimension tends to obfuscate this dimension. If a postmodern architect was to be involved in the design of Psycho’s location, the two buildings, with some probability, would have been collapsed together, in one of Ghenry’s style mashups, where the poles of the antagonism could have compenetrated one into the other, combining them into a new hybrid entity. With all probability, in this case, Norman would have had no need to kill his victims, as the tension of running around between the two places (and identities) would have collapsed as well, into a third space of hybridity. At last, Norman Bateson would have been home. Defining home also implies defining what is not home. And, thus, it implies the definitions, on the one hand, of public spaces and, on the other hand, of the private and intimate ones, which become ever more layered and fragmented: from a house, to the teen’s room, to headphones with which to create and personalize our space, to the Internet, in which we can multiply ourselves and potentially create infinite numbers and modalities of public, private, and intimate contexts, identities, and environments. The genesis of the Sony Walkman, for example, is perfectly fitting in describing this sort of (r)evolution. As the technical opportunities allowed for smaller devices with higher quality to become ever closer to the body, architecture changed.


PREFACE.
In forming the plan of a Medical and Phyfical Journal, two eflential objects have naturally engaged the attention, and directed the efforts of its conductors.
The firft and preliminary confideration, was that of rendering it a refpectable vehicle for thofe difcoveries, improvements, and medical* cafes, which either required to be fpeedily laid before the Public, or which, not being of fufficient importance to be publiflied feparately> might, without fuch an opportunity, be configned to oblivion.
The fecond, and a motive no lefs cogenr, was that of collecting and condenfing thofe hints and improvements which are conftantly ifluing from the prefles of Europe and America; and which, being fcattered in voluminous and expenfive works, would be loft to the greater number of medical practitioners.
Whether thefe two objects, fo eflentially involving the merits, as well as the fuccefs of the prefent undertaking, have in fufficient degree been attained, we fubmit to the decifion of the candid and unprejudiced reader. * Liberally fupported by numerous and refpectable correfpondents, the conductors believe that their publication has had the merit of exciting the attention of the ftudent, and a general fpirit of inveftigation, among medical and phyfical enquirers, and at the fame time it has been the means of diffufing no little variety of inflructive and valuable information. And as it is the primary object of a periodical work,, that it (hould become a centre of communication, the conductors congratulate themfelves on the very flattering and unexampled teftimonies of favour they have received, by the regular and abundant fupply of original articles, equally inftructive and valuable. Improvements in fcience are naturally progreffive: and in medicine, furgery, and pharmacy, this progrefs muft be flow, on account of the caution with which new experiments are received, and of the great difficulty of diftinguifhing between fact and. preconceived opinion.
Vol. I. b PREFACE.
The prefent volume will be found to contain, among other important articles, an accurate and comprehenfive account of one of the moft interefting phyfiological fa&s recorded in the hiftory of medicine, viz. the perpetual means of fuperfeding one difeafe by the introduction of another, and the difcovery of the origin of contagious difeafes, evinced in the Inoculation of the Cow-pox.
The botanical and chemical articles are numerous and valuable; but we fliall particularly mention only the elaborate and curious eflay on the Chemical Analyfis of Vegetables, from the able pen of Dr. Hermbstaedt, of Berlin.
In the departments of anatomy and furgery, we have not hitherto been fo fortunate as in the other branches of medical fcience ; yet we are not without the hope of fupplying this deficiency in our future numbers. The hiftory of anatomy, perhaps the moft effential, if not the moft neceflary part of medical ftudy, we ftiall endeavour to illuftrate from the claffical papers of Profeffor Sprengel, of Halle; and from the difcoveries lately made by Soemmering, Meckel, Walter, and Loder, four of the moft ingenious foreign anatomifts of the prefent period.
In the praftical department of pharmacy, we, without hefitation, promife our readers a rich harveft, as we are already in poffeflion of a confiderable quantity of new and valuable fails, tending to improve that eflential branch of medical pra&ice.
In a word, the conductors are fanCtioned in the belief, that the execution of the work has not fallen fhort of their profeflions, and of the expectations excited, by the extraordinary extent of circulation which it has obtained?a circulation far greater than that of any former medical work publifhed in this country.
London, June 29, 1794. year 1800, it has been judged expedient tc limit the two f.rjt volumes to five numbers ?ach.